How many lost books of the Bible are there?

There is no fixed number, because it is not a defined list. Popular collections range from about 14 to over 70 books depending on which of the Apocrypha, pseudepigrapha, and New Testament apocrypha they include.

Were these books really lost?

Mostly no. The Apocrypha were always in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles. Books like 1 Enoch and Jubilees were preserved in Ethiopia. A few New Testament apocrypha survive only in fragments, but even those were quoted by ancient writers.

Why were they taken out of the Bible?

Different reasons for each group: the Apocrypha were set apart by Protestant reformers who preferred the Hebrew canon; the pseudepigrapha were never in most canons; the New Testament apocrypha were judged too late and too far from apostolic teaching.

What Are the “Lost Books of the Bible”?

It is a catchy phrase for a messy category. Almost none of these books were ever lost, and they were left out of the canon for very different reasons. Here is how they sort out.

“Lost books of the Bible” is a bookseller’s phrase, not a scholarly one. It usually points at three overlapping groups of ancient religious writings that circulated alongside the books now in the Protestant Bible but were not included in it. Very few were genuinely lost; most were copied and read continuously somewhere.

1. The Apocrypha (deuterocanonical books)

Jewish books written mostly between about 200 BC and AD 100, included in the ancient Greek Septuagint and kept as scripture by the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. The original 1611 King James Version printed all of them, between the Old and New Testaments; most later Protestant Bibles dropped them. This is the group with the strongest claim to the word “Bible.”

2. The Old Testament pseudepigrapha

Jewish writings from roughly the same era, attributed to ancient figures — Enoch, Moses, Abraham, the twelve sons of Jacob. Widely read in the Second Temple period, several are quoted or echoed in the New Testament, and two (1 Enoch and Jubilees) are canonical in Ethiopia. The Dead Sea Scrolls showed how popular many of them were.

3. The New Testament apocrypha

Christian writings, mostly from the second century onward, that imitate the forms of the New Testament — gospels, acts, apocalypses. Some fill in gaps the gospels leave (Jesus’ childhood, Mary’s parents); others carried the teaching of groups the wider church rejected. These are the latest of the three groups and the furthest from the canon.

Why the label is misleading

Grouping these together hides real differences. The Wisdom of Solomon and the Infancy Gospel of Thomas have almost nothing in common except that Protestant Bibles omit both. Reading them is worthwhile — they are the background music of the New Testament — but it helps to know which group a given book belongs to and why it sits outside the canon.

Where to read them

This site carries all three groups in complete, public-domain translations, cross-referenced against the canonical text. The Library page is organised by collection.

Common questions

How many lost books of the Bible are there?: There is no fixed number, because it is not a defined list. Popular collections range from about 14 to over 70 books depending on which of the Apocrypha, pseudepigrapha, and New Testament apocrypha they include.
Were these books really lost?: Mostly no. The Apocrypha were always in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles. Books like 1 Enoch and Jubilees were preserved in Ethiopia. A few New Testament apocrypha survive only in fragments, but even those were quoted by ancient writers.
Why were they taken out of the Bible?: Different reasons for each group: the Apocrypha were set apart by Protestant reformers who preferred the Hebrew canon; the pseudepigrapha were never in most canons; the New Testament apocrypha were judged too late and too far from apostolic teaching.